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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28667613">Azumane Asahi Is a Coward.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yumie_Ushioda/pseuds/Yumie_Ushioda'>Yumie_Ushioda</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Azumane Asahi-centric, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, High School, How Do I Tag, Hugs, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Insecure Azumane Asahi, Mutual Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:49:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,382</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28667613</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yumie_Ushioda/pseuds/Yumie_Ushioda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Azumane Asahi has a crush on his classmate but feels too insecure to confess to her.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Azumane Asahi &amp; Reader, Azumane Asahi/Original Female Character(s), Azumane Asahi/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Heyo!<br/>This is my first serious work that i'm publishing so i'm open to any constructive criticism that you can give.<br/>English is not my native language so please forgive my grammar and spelling mistakes if i have any.<br/>I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>Azumane Asahi was a coward</strong>. Coward, an adjective which his close friends weren’t shying away anytime soon from reminding him about at least twice a day. He was painfully aware of that annoying little personality trait of his. But only recently it started bothering him. For the first time in his life instead of just excepting the reality and saying to himself that it was just who he was, he wanted to change. He wanted to be brave. He wanted to speak his heart. He wanted to say yes and he wanted to say no.</p><p>Despite of all his desire to change a part of him was scared of changing too. Would she be scared of him, like everyone else was? Would she like the new him? But wouldn’t that mean she’d never liked the old, Asahi? Even if that was the case he wouldn’t be surprised. He was shy, cowardly and he was never able to say or do what he actually wanted. Of course, she wouldn’t like him. He wasn’t so fond of himself either so why would she be?</p><p>He came to a conclusion; he was a loser. He was never going to get any closer to her than they already were. That thought burned a little hole in his heart. But it was the truth. The truth that took him three years to except. They only had a few months left together before they graduate. He wouldn’t see her everyday anymore like he had for the last three years.  He was sure she would forget about him after high school. He didn’t blame her for it. He wasn’t as memorable as other guys from their school.  It was taking a while for him to come to an understanding of that fact. The fact that he didn’t have a future with her.</p><p>He was aware of the truth and he was aware of the facts and yet he still couldn’t keep his eyes away from hers. To tell the truth; he didn’t want to. He wanted to stare at her for an eternity. Her mesmerizing eyes, her flawless nose, her puffy cheeks which seemed to be always at least a few shades of pink… It was all perfect to him. The smooth skin of her neck that carried her favorite necklace for everyday of the last three years, somehow managing to hide it away from the teachers…</p><p>The red bow of her uniform was undone now that the school was over. Her jacket was laying neatly beside her with her backpack. Her sweater that was at least two sizes too big was loosely hanging off her shoulders. Her legs were crossed with her sketchbook lying on top. She’d gotten her sketchbook in their freshman year and named it Bulba; her favorite pokemon. It was a very thick sketchbook and she’d almost filled all of it. She liked using every page till it was filled with all sorts of drawings. She’d admitted before that she felt like she was disrespecting Bulba if she didn’t use it to it’s fullest. Asahi found all those little traits of hers adorable.</p><p>He loved the rare moments where she would let him look at her drawings in between classes. It calmed him and instantly made his day ten times better. Like that day after he left his team in their second year.</p><p> </p><p><em>The</em> <em>school day was over. Asahi was walking away from the school gym. Trying to turn a blind eye to his former teammates that were watching him leave. He was trying to forget Nishinoya’s words. They should be blaming him. He was the reason they’d lost. Why wasn’t he understanding that one simple fact? But before he got the chance to drag himself even lower, he heard her.</em></p><p>
  <em>‘’hey! Azumane Asahi’’ her normal cheeky tone was gone, making Asahi shiver. Hearing his full name coming out of her mouth with a stern tone took him away from his thoughts. She was here once again like how she was since their first year. She liked watching them play while she drew in her sketchbook, occasionally drawing one of the players. It was weird at first, having a girl that wasn’t their manager watching them play.  But since her brother was the team captain, they let her. </em>
</p><p><em>The</em> <em>team slowly got used to her. Since they were in the same class Asahi would walk with her to the gym. They got closer as time passed. That made Asahi have a little ‘chat’ with her brother which went a lot better than he’d hoped. They became friends somewhere around the end of the first term of their freshman year.  In their second year her brother graduated but the team still let her watch them. They had a competition going on about which one of them had more drawings of themselves in her sketchbook. No one ever won. She always made sure that she drew everyone. He liked that about her as well; she was fair. Even though he deep down hoped the she only drew him. But the fact that there wasn’t anyone else she drew more of made him happy.</em></p><p>
  <em> She understood there was something wrong with him that day even without any word from him saying so. For the first time she didn’t go into the gym to watch their practice but instead walked to home with Asahi. They walked in silence but she figured everything out and asked him if she was alright. He shook his head in shame, explaining everything. Now she knew how he let his team down and made them lose. He didn’t know how she would react but he was scared that she would get angry at him. But instead of getting angry she dragged him to the park near his house and showed him her drawings of him. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘’you’re my favorite to draw Asahi… you never fail to amaze me. Be it your playing, company, words or actions, you could never let me down… well unless you like, commit a crime or anything like that.’’ She smiled softly at him, reassuring him that he wasn’t the loser that he thought himself of. She was kind. Not only to him but everyone around her as well. It made his heart skip a beat every time. And that day he realized that he had a crush. No, it wasn’t just a crush. </em>
  <strong>He liked her.</strong>
  
  <strong>He liked her very much.</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Her tiny fingers were holding her pen tightly, going over lines. He loved her hands. They were so much smaller than his. It made him want to hold them every time he saw them. She was also significantly shorter than him. He wanted to hug her every time she got on her tippy toes when she was grumpy about something and was renting to him. Somedays he just wanted to protect her from everyone and everything. Never letting her go. He knew it wasn’t right or fair but she made him jealous every time she talked to anyone else on the team even if it was Daichi and Suga who he trusted with almost everything. He wanted to be selfish with her.</p><p>It was at times like these where his thoughts went wild that he didn’t want her to be so kind. He wanted her to be straightforward. He wanted her to be not so afraid of hurting his feelings. Because he was too much of a coward to admit his feelings to her so he wanted her to tell him if she liked him more than whatever they already were. He knew it was impossible. She could never do that to him. She could never take the chance, not if one of the chances were her breaking his heart. She was kind like that. And he knew it. And yet he sometimes dreamed about it. what if someday she confessed that she liked him as well and they started dating. He dreamed of hugging her, kissing her. He dreamed of them getting married. He dreamed of them growing old together, still happy as ever.</p><p>As they were playing their last set and he was getting ready to receive Daichi’s toss his eyes catched hers. She was finished with her drawing, resting her hand with the pen around her fingers on her cheeks. She flashed a quick smile to him when she realized that he was looking back. God, she was so beautiful. He missed the ball as it hit his face, making him fall down. He looked up to her, his blush matching hers. She was smiling even wider now. But he knew it wasn’t because she was making fun of him. She was telling him that it was okay to fall at times as long as you got up. So, he got up, scratching the back of his head as he did so. He trusted her fully when it came to her advices. Their practice came to an end not soon after. The team was on their way to change. Asahi made his way to her. He wanted to at least talk to her more than anything today.</p><p>‘’what did you draw today?’’ he asked curiously.  She smiled again but this time it was more playful than the last two. Her eyes were shinning with anticipation. Asahi’s heart was beating faster and his thoughts were running even wilder. She turned Bulba towards him. It was a rather large drawing of him midair, getting ready to hit the ball. She somehow made him look so much more dramatic. He looked up to her, even though it was hard to look away from the drawing, he forced himself to do so. She was much better than anything his eyes could ever see.</p><p>‘’I drew my beautiful ace.’’</p><p>In that brief moment his instincts took over him. His wishes came true for just ten seconds as he became the bravest person in the world.</p><p>He hugged her. </p><p>She didn’t care that he was still in his jerseys that were covered in his sweat. She hugged him back. Happy that she finally made a move on him.</p><p>‘’thank you.’’ The ace whispered in her ear.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong>He loved her.</strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong>And she loved him back. </strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I couldn't help myself and wrote another chapter. hehe<br/>Not sure if this is as good as the first chapter but i still hope you enjoy this chapter as well.<br/>thank you for checking my story out ^^<br/>This will be the end of this story.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>Azumane Asahi was in love and so was she</strong>.<br/>
It has been almost two months since they shared a lovely hug at the karasuno’s gym. The last 48 days were… rough to say the least. Neither of them was as shy as they once were but still not brave enough to do anything else other than a few more hugs, longer glances, cheekier texts and deeper blushes. They both knew something was going on between them but liked the embarrassingly awkward attempt at flirting that they had going on too much to do anything else. The team slowly grew tired of the two’s shyness when one day at their practice Asahi just couldn’t stop staring at her and missed every ball sent in his way. But how could he not stare at her when she looked even more beautiful then usual. She was wearing his own jacket for goodness sake. The weather was cold and the gym was even colder that day so he let her barrow his jacket. And boy was he glad he did it. He just could not take his eyes off of her the entire practice. When the practice ended Sugawara, Daichi and Nishinoya dragged Asahi in a corner to finally have a talk about her.<br/>
‘’soooooo, when are you going to ask her out Asahi?’’ Nishinoya elbowed Asahi in the stomach. Asahi sighed. The libero was being his usual cheery self but Suga and Daichi both looked as curious and cheerful as Nishinoya did. Which meant that he wouldn’t be able to leave this conversation without giving them a straight answer.<br/>
‘’I’m not sure yet…’’ his voice trailed down as he spoke, head falling down and examining the gym floor. He wanted to ask her out. He really did and this time unlike their previous interactions he saw a brief chance of her saying yes to him. They hanged out and texted each other goodnight and good morning messages almost every day. He even met her mom when she invited him over to study last week. They ended up watching a movie instead of studying. She also tried to teach him how to draw, which Asahi was surprisingly not that bad at. The next day when their teacher gave the class a pop quiz, they almost failed at it but it was worth it for Asahi. They had fun that evening and got even closer.<br/>
‘’Come on man, you two are obviously into each other that it’s just annoying at this point. If you ask her out, I assure you, she would accept it.’’ Daichi honesty had enough of the two’s ‘flirt and blush but don’t date’ policy that they had going on. He watched one of his closest friends slowly fall in love with his classmate for three years and he wasn’t going to let them graduate without at least confessing to each other. They were in love and perfect for each other and anyone could see it. Even their coach, Ukai, was aware of the two for crying out loud.<br/>
‘’Do you rally thi-‘’ Asahi was about to fall into self-doubt once again but Suga cut him off.<br/>
‘’You know what? I had about enough of you shying away so here’s a deal that you have to accept; you either ask her out and live together happily ever after or i’ll leak these photos of you two and start a rumor that you are dating.’’ Suga took his phone out to show the pictures he secretly took. A picture of them hugging in the gym that day, a picture of them walking to school together, laughing with blushes on their face, and a picture of her smiling at him in the cafeteria as Asahi was scratching the back of his head and nervously looking away.<br/>
He reluctantly accepted Sugas deal that seemed more like a threat to him. He changed from his jersey as he tried to come up with ways to ask her out, feeling better and braver now that he didn’t have any other choice. She was standing where he left her. She’d finished her drawing and was packing her bag. She saw that he was finished changing so she took his jacket off herself.<br/>
‘’Thank you for lending me your jacket Asahi, that was very nice of you.’’ She put on a smile that Asahi adored. She offered the jacket back to its owner but he refused.<br/>
‘’Oh no you can keep it for today, it’s still very cold outside. You’ll just give it back on Monday when it’s school. And also, please wear something warmer next time i don’t want you to get sick.’’<br/>
She put the jacket back on, feeling a little embarrassed. She zipped her backpack.<br/>
‘’thank you… and I promise I’ll wear something wormer on Monday.’’ They walked out of the gym together after saying goodbye to everyone. He saw Nishinoya and Tanaka with their thumbs up, winking at him. He sighed as he shook his head in disbelief. Those two were too exited about his potential of having a girlfriend.<br/>
Their places were close to each other so they always walked together when they had time. It really was cold outside. She was glad that Asahi let her wear his jacket other wise she was sure that she’d catch a cold.<br/>
They talked about their days and stuff that they had to do as they walked. They both had their competition soon. Asahi had another volleyball match and she had an art contest soon. They were both determined to win. It was Asahi’s last few chances to play volleyball in high school and wining the contest would help her a lot with getting into her dream university. As they were encouraging each other a little snowflake fell on Asahi’s nose.<br/>
‘’Asahi, it’s snowing!’’ she exclaimed with a grin on. She loved snow. And Asahi loved how child like she would get whenever it snowed. They were close to the park where he realized he liked her. But that meant that they had to go on their own separate ways soon. She’d go left and he’d go right. That bummed him out a little. He wanted to spent more time together.<br/>
‘’Oh! I know, if you’re free, let’s take a stroll in the park! It’s the first snow and I don’t want to go home yet, please Asahi’’ she linked her arm with his, looking up at him with pleading eyes. His heart skipped at least two beats. She was adorable, how could he say no to her?<br/>
‘’Of course! I’d love to.’’ He smiled at her, making her heart miss a few beats as well. He looked too cute to actually exist.<br/>
They walked around the park; arms linked as it snowed. They were both over the moon. Here they were, walking together in the park just like a couple. Their cheeks had a subtle blush and their lips had a smile on. They both wanted this to last forever. It was perfect. They had each other, closer than before, just walking under the snow away from any of their worries and problems. It was everything he ever wanted. She wasn’t scared or annoyed of him like he once feared. She was pulling him by his arm as she tried to catch snowflakes with her mouth and smiling at him when she did. He was over the moon to say the least.<br/>
They stopped under the grand tree that was placed at the middle of the park. It had numerous couple names carved on it. he smiled looking at the various different names and hearts. Maybe one day, he dreamed, their names would be on that tree as well. He turned his head back to her. She was looking at him, smiling. Her hair was covered in snow. There were even a few on her eyelashes as well. He smiled back at her.<br/>
‘’Thank you so much, Asahi, I mean it. Today was amazing and I really don’t want it to ever end but you’re not wearing your jacket and I don’t want you to get sick either so… we should go soon.’’ She was holding both his hands in hers as rocked back and fort slightly, still too happy to stay still. He looked into her eyes. They were genuinely happy. Looking even brighter than they ever did. Reaching depths of Asahi’s soul and heart that he didn’t know was possible. He interlocked their fingers together. At that exact moment he gave himself to her. To the girl who had her heart from the moment she let herself be seen by the boy. To the girl he could imagine himself growing old with. To the girl who he wanted to be with forever. He took a step closer to her, wiping a few snowflakes from her cheek with his thumb. He didn’t take his hand away after he was done, not wanting to let her go, he simply let it sit on her cheek. He took a deep breath in, gathering all the courage he had.<br/>
<strong>‘’I love you, so very much’’</strong> he spoke his heart out to her. Happy that he finally let the truth out. She put her free hand on his cheek as well, creasing it slowly. She looked at him softly.<br/>
<strong>‘’I love you too.’’</strong> she smiled.<br/>
They leaned closer, foreheads touching. He couldn’t believe it. finally, he’d confessed to her and she… she said she loved him back. He let the biggest smile he ever had take over his face. This was the one moment in his life he wanted to remember forever. He wanted time to stop. He wanted to just live in that moment as long as it was possible. He separated their hands that were still together. He put his hand on her waist, pulling her closer. She put her free hand on his neck. Their other hands were still creasing each other’s cheek. They leaned their heads in even closer, finally letting their lips touch. They kissed passionately as snow fell around them.</p>
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